Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1887-04-23


wrong track we will simply sit still.
They will run it hundred yards or
so, and noting our silence will throw
il off again. When they 90 on the
right track halloo and start after
the hounds that has it, The others
will join and the race is opened"
Az last red hound, careering
Ike mad ACROSS the field, halts sad
denly, GumbIes over himself, faces
about, noses the ground eagerly,
lifts bis head, A-a-o-o-w-ul' and is off
Ike an arrow from q bowstring.
CHATS The track" shouts Williams,
and after the bowling hound we go,
The other dogs join in pe'l-mell at
first then each hound true to the
track, in full cry at a rafting
gait Away off to the left Captain
James calls calls attention TO q NOV
ing speak against the sky. "That is
tie convict circling back to camp"
he said. On the dogs vents, keen
as the wind inexorable as fate, follow
ing the track of the convict as true
as his own shadow.
Across the tracks of hundreds of
others along high roads, over fields,
through herds of cattle, by other
convicts that smiled grimly as they
passed, the hounds went, holding the
track of the flying convict where it
had been laid as lightly as thistle on
the firm earth, but where it left its
telltale scent all the same. Nothing
could shake them of-nothing check
their furious rush. Over other
tracks made by .convicts wearing
shoes from the same last and same
box they went without intolerance, led
by some miracle of the air straigh on
a single trail.
"Now wen see them wind his
scent fifty yards away" said Will
Jams, as we neared patch of forest.
Close TO this was a squad Of con-
victs. These we had sent through
the woods an hour before. We had
"trusties," walking singly. touch
every bush and tree. Then the con-
Wet we were trailing was run through
making q half circle, with at least
fifty wards radius. The hounds en-.
tered the forest at hunting pace.
a small red dog leading. Suddenly
the leader faltered for an instant,
with nose in air, then burst with
fierce cry TO the left, ran obliquely
FOR full fifty yards, with head up,
when he took up again the track OF
the convict. and lowered his head to
the ground. He had simply made a
short cut across the sem;clrcle, hay
ing caught scent of the convict on
the bushes more than q hundred feet
away. / am aware that this is 10
credible to those who have never
seen it, | cannot explain what it is
that the flying man, clad and shod
as hundred others, fed on the same
food, clained daily to the same
hunks at night, imparts to q yield
ing twig touched by his clothes so
that it attracts hound fifty yards
away. But ii certainly does just
that.
| The last test was now coming. We
were moving toward squad of con
v;cos at work in a cotton field. We
bad sent the fdgatiye convict through
This squad. We had then made
them walk in q double circle around
him. They then crossed and re
crossed his tracks, many of them
wearing such shoes as he wore. One
hour later the hounds struck this
point. There was not an instant's
pause. There was no deviation, nc
let up in the pace. Through the
labyrinth of tracks the hounds went
as swallows through the air, hurry
ing inexorably on the one track they
had chosen.
The end was now near. The cou
yict, having run his race, was seer
laoninn noainst q tree and watching